The only family we need
by thesumofmydecisions
Summary: Collection of short stories featuring Alex and Jo's future family. Canon until 11x08. Set on the same universe of "Behind the scenes" and "I'll be home for Christmas". Some chapters may include other characters. Disclaimer: I own nothing. Rated T just to be safe.
1. Hundred more years (2015)

**A/N: **Hi! Well, while I was writing "I'll be home for Christmas", for everything to make sense the way I wanted, I had to look at Alex and Jo a few years from now and, when I finished, I liked what I imagined for their future. Then, I remembered a oneshot that I started a few months ago, made some adjustments and decided to start a story that will be a collection of oneshots on that universe. I'm not making any promises, I'll just write when I have the right idea and enough time and I'll publish everything right away, so it's possible that I'll take a while between chapters, but it's also possible that I'll update more than one chapter at once. Some chapters may be only a drabble, others may have three thousand words. And if someone have any ideas that fit into this context, feel free to tell me, and I'll see what I can do. (As you may have noticed by every one of my other stories, I'm always inspired by music, so I accept songs as suggestions too.)

I hope you all enjoy it. And, please, review.

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**_And she wants to stay right here  
_****_Make it last for a hundred more years  
_****(Hundred more years - Francesca Battistelli)**

**September, 2015.**

Jo woke up with the baby crying. Her maternal instinct was already working, but her body was still asleep. Giving birth was an exhausting activity that she had no plans to repeat in the foreseeable future. If she and Alex ever decided to have more kids, adoption sounded even more appealing than it did before. Not that she planned to deal with that kind of decision anytime soon, she still had to figure out how to be a mother of one, after all.

Slowly, Jo opened her eyes. The baby girl was on the crib, with Alex sleeping in the chair next to her. _Adorable, you two_. It probably wasn't the right thing for a mother to do when she hears her child crying, but she immediately grabbed her cellphone and took a photo.

As she put the phone back on the table besides her bed, she called him. "Alex," she said, in a volume high enough for him to wake up, but not too high to startle the baby.

"What?" He said, quickly opening his eyes and rubbing his face. "I'm sorry... I shouldn't have slept. Do you need anything?"

"It's fine, you needed some rest, since you didn't want to go home without us. Just give me her please." Jo said, getting up to a sit position. "She's probably hungry."

Alex got up and took the baby from the crib, trying to comfort her with soothing words. "Hey, baby girl. Don't worry, mommy and daddy are here for you." Smiling, Jo watched them. Since they met, she had lost count of how many times she saw her husband with kids, either patients or their friend's children, but it would never be enough to stop amazing her. While she was still unsure about her own abilities as a parent, at least she knew that she couldn't have chosen a better man to have a baby with. He was a natural. Suddenly, her eyes were wet and she had forgotten all objections to have a dozen more tiny humans. _Damn, hormones!_

She took the baby from her husband, and he adjusted the pillows to help her finding the more comfortable position to breastfeed. When she said it was okay, he sat by her side on the bed, taking his daughter's hand on his own and smiling when her tiny fingers held his thumb. They were both doctors, of course they knew that it was only a reflexive response, but it was still sweet.

"Are you hungry, sweetie?" Jo said, with a childish voice. "Yeah?" She looked at Alex, who was still staring at them in awe. "Can you believe this? She is..."

As Jo couldn't find the words to finish the sentence, Alex lifted his eyes to meet hers. "Perfect," he said, and she nodded. Perfect.


	2. Brighter than the sun (2015)

**A/N**_:_ Hi! Thanks everyone for your follows, favorites and reviews, I'm glad you liked my idea. This chapter is another thing I had hanging unfinished in my computer for a while and it's set two months earlier than the first. I think I forgot to mention that the chapters are not necessarily on cronological order.

And answering to **xsweetgirlx91** question: Yes, in my world, Jo got pregnant soon after Christmas. I don't think this will really happen on the show, but I'm a timeline freak and I wanted this story to fit with the other two that have scenes on this same universe.

Enjoy it :)

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_**I never seen it, but I found this love I'm gonna feed it**_  
_**You better believe I'm gonna treat it better than anything I've ever had**_

**(Brighter than the sun - Colbie Caillat)**

**July, 2015.**

"Can I sit here?" Meredith asked as she approached the table where Jo, Stephanie and Alex were having lunch. "How did you guys get the good table? I forgot how this place is crowded when new interns arrive."

"Thank Jo," Stephanie replied.

"No, no," Jo disagreed. "Thank _her_." She pointed to her belly. "Being pregnant has its perks."

The other three laughed.

"So... _Her_?" Meredith asked.

Alex shot a lovingly glance to his wife as she replied. "Yep. She finally decided to open her legs."

"And now I hope she closes them again for the next fifty years." The father to be said, making Jo roll her eyes at him.

Meredith was smiling. "Alex having a girl, that's gonna be fun."

"Ha-ha, bite me," he replied.

"So, have you thought about names yet?" Stephanie asked. "I found this app yesterday that have thousands of names and their meanings, I can help you guys."

Jo put the fork by the side of her plate and looked at each one of the her companions. "Actually, I may have a good name."

She waited for everyone to look back at her. When they did, she looked at Alex and put her hand on his arm. "Do you remember like three years ago when we went to Dr Bailey's wedding and we were drunk and we had a ridiculous fake fight?"

He nodded.

"So, we faked a story about we being a couple and we needed a name for our fake child, remember? We couldn't decide, which was a lot like the conversation we had yesterday, then this waitress came and we looked at her name tag and we used her name... Becky. Our daughter's name should be Becky."

"A name chosen by her drunk parents years before she was born. That's kind of sweet. And disturbing," Stephanie mocked. Meredith laughed with her while Jo waited for Alex's response.

"So..." She said.

"Yeah, I remember this story, but it can't be Becky," he replied, without offering an explanation.

Three pairs of eyes stared at him. "Why not?" Jo and Meredith asked at the same time.

He looked shyly at his wife, then turned to his friend. "Seriously, Mer? Becky, like in Rebecca?"

Meredith faked a painful expression. "Oh, that." She turned to Jo. "He's right. You don't want Becky."

Jo looked at her friend, both not understanding a thing. Then she looked at Alex again, raising an eyebrow to him and waiting for further information. He murmured something, but she couldn't understand. Meredith intervened. "Ex-girlfriend. You probably know about her. The one who thought she was pregnant with his child, peed on my couch and then tried to kill herself on my kitchen - which now is yours."

Jo made a face. "Oh, this one? Definitely, it's not gonna be Becky. Thanks, honey, for ruining our daughter's perfect name about a decade before she was born." She said, playful. Alex snorted. "If _you_ had came here like seven years earlier, I wouldn't have many names ruined."

"Yeah, sure," she laughed. "So... Any other ideas?"

"I like Sarah. If I had another girl, which is not gonna happen, I think this could be a good name." Meredith said.

"Nope," Alex said, without giving Jo the time to even think about it. She furrowed at him, awaiting an explanation. "My high school teacher. The one who... teached me how to drive and..."

"Ooookay," Jo remembered the story Alex had told her years ago and interrupted him, causing Meredith to burst into laughs.

Stephanie looked at her. "Is that what I'm thinking it is?"

"Yeah," she said, failing to contain her laugh too. "Your turn. Let's see if you can come up with a name that it's not someone my beloved husband already slept with."

As if she wanted to participate on the conversation, the baby started to kick inside of Jo. "Hey, calm down, my friend!" She said, looking down.

Alex put his hand on her belly. "Yeah, baby girl," he said. "You better get used to that, because your mother, her best friend Stephanie and aunt Meredith can be pretty loud sometimes. But I think it's your interest too. I think you want to have a name, right? You're gonna need one. I bet you're not gonna like be called 'baby girl' when you're a teenager."

Jo smiled, running her fingers through his hair, and moved his face to look at her. "Thank you," she said and pecked his lips, before she divided her attention with their friends again. "His voice calms her down," she explained. "So, Steph, did you find something good?"

The resident was looking at her cell phone. "Hmm... What about Elizabeth? It's the name of the day."

"Oh, no. I had a foster mother called Elizabeth. " She paused, deciding if this was something she could share at lunch table. "Let's just say that she wasn't the better person I've met in life."

"So, ex-girlfriends and foster mothers are out. That's getting hard," Stephanie complained. "Let me see... Yesterday's name was Olivia. I like Olivia."

Alex and Jo looked at each other. It was a nice name. As they were about to agree on that one, Meredith coughed to caught their attention.

"What?" Alex asked.

"Syph nurse, remember?" His friend clarified.

"Syph nurse, what the hell is that?" Jo asked.

Alex waved at the topic, but Meredith wouldn't let he get away with that one. "Two months after we started our internship, Alex gave syphilis to nurse Olivia, who gave it to our friend George. Half of the hospital had it in the end."

Jo slapped Alex's arm, faking a horrified face, and started to type on her phone.

"Ouch! What are you doing?" He asked.

She looked at him seriously. "Asking my doctor for STD tests, only to be sure."

"Come freaking on," he protested. "I haven't slept with anyone for like ten months before I slept with you."

Jo tried hard to keep her face straight, but she couldn't torture him for too long. She bit her lip and stared at him until he realized she was kidding. "Shut up," Alex said, blushing. "Edwards, next. If we're really going to do this now, it better be fast, I have surgery in twenty minutes."

"Alex," Jo said, getting closer to him. "You know I love messing with you."

"Whatever," he dismissed. "Edwards?"

During their little banter, Jo almost forgot that they were at the cafeteria with their friends in front of them. Both seemed amused with the scene.

Stephanie turned to her phone again. "Next. Emily."

"No," Jo said right away. "High school nemesis."

"So..." Stephanie typed something and waited. "Rose."

Meredith, who had been silently eating her food for the latest few minutes, didn't give them the chance to say a word. "No. Nurse Rose."

Alex frowned. "I didn't sleep with her, did I?"

"No, not that I know of. Derek did, though," Meredith replied, nonchalantly.

Stephanie looked questioningly at Jo. "Are we crossing off _her_ husband's exes too?"

"If I'm gonna be the godmother, then we better be," Meredith replied.

Stephanie didn't like it. "Wait, wait, is she the godmother?"

Jo was getting lost in the middle of this discussion. She still had two months to decide on these things, why were they letting their friends do that again? "Well, we haven't talked about that yet, but... Alex?"

Alex, who was more interested in finish his meal than decide who was going to godmother his child, cut them. "Can we please go back to the names? No Rose."

"Fine," Stephanie resumed her task. "The next one is... Anna."

"No," Alex said, between fries.

Meredith shook her head, confused. "This one I don't think I know. Who is she?"

"No exes, I just don't like this name," he explained. Jo was getting tired of this already.

"Getting harder," Stephanie said, without even looking at them.

"Go on. Fifteen minutes and I'm gone. I have a kid's life to save."

"Hmm... Claire." The resident offered. She was the only one still excited.

Jo thought for a moment. She didn't find anything against the name. It was actually a pretty name. She waited for someone to say something, but Alex and Meredith didn't present any objections either. She wasn't going to chose just like that, tough. A name was a big deal, it would follow her daughter forever. She decided to make a list with all approved names, so she and Alex could go through it just by themselves later. When she grabbed her phone to create the list, the baby gave her a strong kick.

"Ouch!" she said, startling. "Girl, you respect my insides, I'm your mother."

"I think she likes the name," Meredith pointed.

The four exchanged curious glances.

"So, you want your name to be Claire, baby girl?" Alex talked to his wife's belly again. Another kick in response.

"Alex! She really likes it." Jo said, with a big smile on her lips.

Stephanie turned to Meredith. "Is there a biological explanation for this?"

Meredith shrugged. "Probably not. But it's sweet either way."

"Steph, what does Claire mean?" Jo asked, while Alex kept talking to the tiny human inside of her.

"Let me see... Claire means bright. Oh, that's cute, there's a sun to illustrate the name," her friend replied.

Jo smiled again. "I like it." She looked at Alex, waiting for his opinion.

"Well, if you like it and she likes it, I think baby girl has a name," he replied.

Jo put her hand over his on her belly and repeated the name, only to feel a final kick, before all of them roll their eyes at Stephanie's suggestion. "Good, now we can start talking about middle names."


	3. Where you lead (2029)

_**Where you lead, I will follow**_  
_**Anywhere that you tell me too**_  
**(Where you lead - Carole King/Gilmore Girls theme song version)**

**2029**

"So, who goes first?" Natalie asked to her big sister, both in front of their parent's door.

"You," Claire replied, without taking her eyes off of the cake she was holding.

"Why does it have to be me?" The younger complained. Claire had always been the decision maker between the two and, sometimes, Natalie hated that.

"Because I'm older. I'm in charge," Claire replied with her default line, much for her sister annoyance.

"You know I'm not your baby sister anymore, right? I'm eleven," Natalie replied, her big black eyes fixed at the older girl.

Claire laughed. "And I'm fourteen. I'll always be three years older, you'll always be my baby sister."

Natalie sighed. "Fine. But I'm still not going first. You know how dad is cranky when he has to get up so early if he's not working."

"Really? I haven't noticed." Claire pointed, sarcastically.

"So, you have to go first. You're daddy's girl." Natalie explained.

"Shut up," Claire protested. "I'm not." But she was. Everybody knew that Claire was closer to dad, the same way Natalie was to their mother.

"Yes, you are. And I didn't even want to do that."

Claire raised an eyebrow. "And you wonder why _I_ am daddy's girl."

Both girls were starting to get tired, but none of them were willing to give up. Of course, their father wasn't going to get mad at them for preparing him a surprise for his birthday, they were just to stubborn to let the other win.

"Shut up," Natalie shot. "I didn't want to do because I know he doesn't like birthdays." Actually, Claire was the only person in the family that liked.

They heard a sound and both froze, afraid that their father would wake up and spoil the surprise, but nothing happened.

"But this is different," Claire argued. "He's turning fifty!"

"Exactly. He's old," Natalie said, matter of factly.

Claire protested. "He's not old! All my friends think he's still hot."

Natalie's face turned into a grimace of horror. "You're gross."

"Whatever. Just open the door."

Claire was getting inpatient, but Natalie was resolute. "Nope. You go first. This was your idea, I'm just following your lead."

"And my lead is that you go first."

"No. I'm _following._ Do you even know what this word means?" The younger girl provoked. That was an usual banter between the two sisters, since Natalie liked to read and was always learning new words, while Claire was more of a math and science girl, like their parents.

"Of course I know, smart mouth. And you respect me, I'm your big sister, do _you_ know what that means?"

As she said that, Claire noticed a spot where the chantilly of her cake was failing, so she started to fix it with her finger, not paying much attention to her sister in that moment.

Natalie, on the other hand, used the time to find the perfect answer. "That means you'll get old first."

"At least I have mom's genes and she isn't old. My male friends think she's hot too," Claire replied carelessness, and continued her work on the cake by repositioning two strawberries. She waited for another snarky response that didn't come. When she raised her eyes, she saw Natalie staring at her. _Shit!_

The younger Karev daughter had been adopted at the age of two. That had never been a big issue for any of them, but Natalie was now at that transition phase between childhood and adolescence, so she was being more sensitive and they had to be cautious. Claire didn't think about that, she just wanted to point out that she had her mother's features, that's all. But of course her sister wouldn't see things that way. With her eyes full of tears, Natalie turned her back to Claire and walked towards her room. Mad at herself, Claire quickly put the cake on the table by the wall and ran past the younger sibling.

"Oh, my God. Natalie, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you. Can you forgive me? You're my sister, no matter what. You know that, right?"

A hint of smile started to form on Natalie's lips. Claire didn't wait, she took her baby sister on her arms, and the two girls shared a long hug.

So long that none of them saw two people getting out of their parents's room and watching them after hearing all their conversation from inside the bedroom. Nor did they hear the voice of their mother asking their father before they walk to them and join the embrace: "So, who goes first?"

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**A/N:** I know there's almost nothing of Alex and Jo on this chapter, but I just felt like writing about the girls, because I had an idea for a story more focused on them and I wanted to exercise a little. I also know that there may be some divergence about Alex's age, since the timeline of the show is horrible, but even the timeline freak I am admits it's not really important in this case. I hope you like it! Please, review. And I still out of ideas for the next chapter, so I'm taking suggestions.


	4. Lucky (2015)

**A/N: **This chapter is a sequel for chapter 4 on **I'll be home for Christmas**. Actually, it was supposed to be part of that story, but there's a topic I'm very passionate about, so I decided that it was a better idea to take if off and write on a lighter context. I just want to warn that, altough I may have used Jo's words to express my opinion, I don't necessarily agree with everything they said.

As I said on the last chapter, I had an ideia for a story about Claire and Natalie and I started to write it. I still haven't decided if I will publish it now or write everything first, so I want to know what do you guys think.

Please, reviews can't give me time to write faster or better, but can make me very happy :)

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_**I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend  
**__**Lucky to have been where I have been  
**__**(**_**Lucky - Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat)**

**December, 25. 2014.**

Jo wake up to the sound of Sofia running in the corridor - all of those years having to protect herself made her a light sleeper. She shook her head to take the hair off of her face and looked at the clock on her nightstand. Eight o'clock. Unless something happened at the hospital, both her and Alex still had three hours to sleep or just stay in bed. Then she looked at him, who was still sleeping soundly. He was lying on his side, facing her, with his right arm under her neck and his left hand holding hers, their fingers intertwined and... A ring. A beautiful platinum band paved with tiny white diamonds and a black rough diamond in the center. Perfect.

As her eyes lay on the ring, Jo was overwhelmed by the memories of the previous night. She was sure she would never forget that night. Thinking about that brought to her lips a smile that she didn't even notice. Also, she didn't notice that Alex breath had changed by her side and now his once closed eyes were open and fixed at her.

"Do you like it?" Jo startled at his soft voice by her ear.

She giggled, feeling like a teenager. "Hmm hmm." She murmured as she turned to face him and pecked his lips.

With their faces only a couple of inches apart, they just stared at each other for a while, until she changed her position again, facing the ceiling and trying to put all of her thoughts in order before they started the day. She felt Alex's fingers touching her shoulder as he kept staring at her.

She looked at the ring once more. Never in her life she thought she would just wake up one day and be engaged. Of course, when she was younger, she thought she could want to get married someday, but everything seemed so distant. Now, it was real. Suddenly, Jo felt her heart racing and her breath got heavier for a while.

Alex noticed. "Jo... Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she nodded, with a smile. "It's just... We're getting married." It was a simple statement. A truth that she needed to say out loud to help it to sink in. But as she said that, she felt Alex's muscles tightened under her head.

"Yes, we are. Unless... Are you changing your mind?" He asked, carefully.

Jo turned her head to face him. "No!" She answered quickly. "I thought I'd want to, I thought I'd feel weird, but it feels right. I'm not changing my mind, Alex."

He smiled at her reassurance and Jo felt her heart warming. After months of her resisting to turn a page, now they were at the same place and they were both happy about that decision.

"So..." She started again. "What do we have to do? Just get a marriage license and run to the courthouse? Or do you want a wedding?"

"Nah," he replied. "I mean, if you want, it's fine by me, but I'm also fine with the courthouse."

She thought for a moment before replying. "I think we could have a small gathering with our friends after." Silently, she hoped that by the time that reunion happened, Grey and her would have learned to be friendly to each other. How would she react when they told her? Jo shook this thought off her head before it became a snowball and turned back to pay attention on Alex's response.

"Okay. I can put Robbins in charge of that, she's gonna love it." They both chuckled at how true was that conclusion.

Another moment of silence came over them, when Alex moved his hand and started playing with Jo's hair. It was a comfortable silence.

Still enjoying their quiet intimacy, a thought came to Jo's mind, something that had been around for a while, but she hadn't felt that she should verbalize before. "Alex, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, sure," he replied immediately.

"Why it didn't work? Your first marriage, I mean." She asked, cautiously observing his reaction. Jo had heard enough at the hospital to know that this was a sensitive subject, but it didn't hurt to try, she hoped.

Jo waited patiently while Alex averted his eyes and sighed. Then, he looked at her again and shrugged. "I wasn't good enough for her."

She was surprised. Coming from any other person, that line would make her laugh, but knowing Alex, he probably believed that. "Really?" That was all she managed to say.

"Basically, yes. I said something stupid that might or might not have caused her being fired, I'll never know for sure, she put that in the pile of everything bad I've done before and left. She came back eventually, but that was a war a could never win, so I gave up and told her to go. That's it." He explained without showing much emotion and Jo regretted asking, assuming that he was just trying to get that over with. On the other hand, she still had so much she wanted to know.

Jo replayed his words in her mind a few times until a bell rang. "I said something stupid that caused you to get fired."

Alex chuckled. "Yeah, that was pretty much the same thing."

"But you didn't left me. You were mad, but we worked things out." Jo felt silly saying that out loud. She couldn't explain why, but that conclusion made her feel safe, as if the fact that they had easily survived to something that had been a deal breaker for someone else could guarantee that they would survive anything.

"I understood you didn't do that on purpose, it's in the past. I trust you, it's different." Alex explained.

A smiled crossed Jo's lips and she leaned forward to give him a quick kiss. "I hope so."

"Anything else you want to know, before we can drop this subject forever?" He asked, bringing her close.

Yes, she _wanted_ to know everything and she knew she should take that opportunity, but she decided to stick to what she might _need_ to know. She looked straight into his eyes. "Did you love her?"

Alex sighed and tightened his grip around her. "Do I really need to answer that?"

"Well, you don't, but you offered to, so I'd appreciate if you did," Jo replied, keeping her tone light.

Alex kissed her again. "I love _you,_ isn't that enough?"

Jo fought hard to resist that smirk. "Yes, it is, indeed," she said, sweetly. "I'm just, I don't know, trying to understand, not making any comparisons or anything. I mean, it's not like she's here and I have to fight her for you - which I totally would, just for the record. I just don't get why someone would marry a person that they don't love and they aren't willing to fight for things to work with."

Alex listened silently, his intense gaze all over her. "Fine. I _did_ love her, but we only got married because I thought she was going to die, it was her dream, or whatever. Now I see that was a big mistake, we weren't ready to take that step and I don't know if we would ever really be."

Not that Jo had never heard about that, she had, gossip was like a virus in that hospital, but it was different to hear from him. She felt that that was an important step for their relationship, since he wasn't the kind of person that tells everything or asks many questions.

On the other hand, Jo also felt a bit of anger. It was kind of selfish to marry someone just because you think you're dying and then just walk away when you get better. She tried to bite her tongue, but she couldn't. "It looks like _she_ wasn't good enough for you."

As soon as the sentence was out of her mouth, Jo regretted saying that. It sounded arrogant. Was _she _good enough? Alex didn't seem to be bothered by that particularity, tough.

"To be fair, she meant well, she tried to fix me, but I guess I wasn't ready to be fixed yet. A lot has changed between she left and you met me, you didn't know me then." Alex said, finding something very interesting on his own hands to avoid looking at her.

Jo thought. She'd heard a lot of people at the hospital talking about how much Alex had changed over the years, but that always bothered her. "That's true. But I know you now. And I don't believe someone can change that much. You can grow up, you can learn not to make the same mistakes, but you can't change who you are," she continued as Alex listened attentively. "And I know that, because I've tried to change a lot of times before I learned that I couldn't. And if someone is gonna love me, they'll have to love all of me."

She saw Alex's face blushing before he kissed the top of her head and buried his face on her hair. "I think I can do that."

Jo smiled, her heart warm, although she knew that was her clue to change the subject. She didn't care, though. She didn't need anything else.

"You know what?" She said. "I'm glad that this girl and all the other ones that you may have loved didn't think you were enough. Their loss, my luck."


	5. Here's to you (2015)

**_A toast to the lessons not yet learned_**  
**_And to the trials that will teach them_**  
**(Here's to you - Brooke Fraser)**

**January, 2015.**

"Derek Shepherd, don't you dare not to come this weekend, I have tons of things to do, Amelia won't be available and I'm not leaving my children with the nanny again." Meredith said between her teeth for the answering machine on the other side of the line. She didn't care if he was at a meeting with the President of the United States, it was the fourth time she'd called him, he should at least acknowledge her.

She was exhausted. Fighting was exhausting. Specially because she didn't have Cristina there. She needed her friend, maybe more than she needed her husband. She needed both. She still had Alex, of course, and he was great, but a different kind of great than Cristina was. He was excellent as a brother, a protector, a problem solver, a drinking buddy and, thought she needed all of that, she also needed a partner in crime, for those times she didn't want a solution, only someone to drink and listen to her complaints.

Besides, he was getting married. In less than twenty-four hours, Alex Karev would be a married man getting out of town and leaving her alone for a whole week, with the promise of not answer her calls. It was a fair decision, Meredith had to admit. She remembered being a newlywed and wanting to have sex everytime and everywhere, having to kick her roommates from her house, including Alex. It was a fair decision and she wouldn't mind his absence that much if she wasn't going through such a difficult time that she couldn't even be happy for him - and she wanted, he knew she wanted.

After trying to reach Derek once more, Meredith decided that she needed a rest. She looked at the clock, 6:27 pm. The daycare was going to work for another half an hour, but some people were starting to leave the hospital and soon only the night shifters would be there. However, this was the time the on call rooms were the worst, all full of tired people, mostly interns and residents in the middle of their 24-hours shift. After opening three doors without finding a single good bed empty, she found the stairs and went three floors down to somewhere she hadn't been in a while; it wasn't a very suitable place for someone who owned the hospital, but she didn't care, the tunnels were the best possible place, since nobody went there anymore, specially after 6. Twenty minutes. Only twenty minutes and she could pick up her kids and go home.

Smiling to herself, Meredith walked fast the last steps before reaching her goal. She just didn't expected to find a person there.

Specially, not _that_ person.

"Wilson." The younger woman startled at the sound of her name. Meredith could see that she stopped taking something out of a plastic bag, which she put behind herself as soon as she noticed that she had company. She looked annoyed.

"You gotta be kidding me," Jo said, without showing any indication that she was leaving. "Alex isn't here," she added and they stared at each other with narrow eyes. It wasn't an unusual exchange between the two women, since Meredith had been spending some time at Alex's lately and his soon-to-be wife didn't like it so much.

"I'm not looking for him, I just wanted to be alone," Meredith replied. None of them moved for a while and she was still hoping that Jo would be the one to leave. Whatever she was doing, couldn't she do that elsewhere?

With a sarcastic chuckle, the resident got up from the broken wheelchair she was sitting. "Fine, the place is all yours," she said. "At least, now I'm leaving a place that's really yours."

Meredith faked a smile at the response. That girl wasn't afraid of anything and she sort of admired her insolence. "What are _you_ doing here, anyway?"

The blonde watched as all the color left Wilson's face, almost like she had forgotten what she was doing there and was reminded now. She quickly recovered, though, grabbing her things and turning on her heels to walk fast on the other direction. "Nothing," she said, leaving.

On her hurry, Jo didn't notice that something had fallen from the plastic bag. Meredith walked the few steps towards the spot where the missing thing lay between two hospital sheets, intending to take it and give it back later, but that's when her eyes gave her the second surprise in less than ten minutes.

Slowly, she took the pink stick on her hands and looked at the brunette, who was already several feet alway.

"You're pregnant." The clear, yet not too loud, sound of her voice echoed in the empty place.

Jo stopped and slowly turned to face her. "What?"

Even at distance, Meredith could see that Wilson was nervous when her wide open eyes followed the hand she rose with the small piece of evidence.

"Why are you so sure this is mine?" The resident asked, trying to sound casually, while Meredith studied her with her eyes.

"Because you didn't deny it. And because your boobs are bigger than usual. I'd been pregnant, I know how it works. I bet you were trying to do a blood draw, am I right?" Meredith asked, causing Jo to shake her head, walk back towards her and take the positive pregnancy test from her hands.

"This is none of your business." Jo said and resumed her way to the back exit.

Meredith sighed. She was trying to be nice. This was her friend's future wife, carrying her friend's baby. Apparently, she'd have to try harder, although that might be tough. She'd been avoiding Wilson for months, how could she change that now, for both of them?

Well, there was one thing she needed when she was trying to take a pregnancy blood test without letting anyone know. "Let me take your blood," she offered.

Jo stopped and turned to her again, her face showing confusion. "Why would do that? I know you hate me."

Meredith couldn't say that response was unexpected. "I don't hate you."

The resident laughed, to Meredith's surprise. "So you're a pretty good actress."

"Come on, you know it will take you forever to get the needle right into your own vein." She watched as the other woman switched her weight between her feet, pondering the words she'd just heard.

Finally, she decided to take the offer. "Fine," she said, leaning against a gurney and handing to Meredith the bag with the blood test kit.

The attending stood by her side and took the material she needed for the blood draw. She couldn't help notice that there were another three used home tests inside the bag. Wilson could take how many spare tests she wanted, she was definitely pregnant.

"When are you going to tell Alex?" She asked, whilst preparing the syringe.

Jo looked at her, defensively. "What makes you think I haven't?"

Meredith shrugged, that girl was tougher than she thought. "You're hiding. Probably because you're scared."

The resident gave her a questioning look, and Meredith smiled. "You'd be surprised if I told you how many times I did the same thing."

They made eye contact for a few seconds, before Jo looked at her hands and replied. "I barely talked to him today, he has a thousand surgeries to do before we get out of town, so I guess I'll have to wait until after the wedding."

Meredith nodded and finished to take the needed blood, that awkward conversation filling her mind with memories she wasn't sure she wanted to recover now. That's why she couldn't bear to be in Jo's presence for long. There was so much of herself on Alex's fiancée. She didn't know exactly why, but when the younger woman got up, instead of giving her the tubes, she held them in her hands and sat.

"I don't hate you," she started, for the other's surprise. "I'm jealous of you."

Jo frowned at her. "What?"

"That got out wrong," Meredith explained. "I'm not jealous _of you_. I'm jealous because I used to be you." Jo's face going from irritated to curious. "A few years ago, I was the third year resident married to an attending, talking about babies and making career decisions. I had choices, now I only have consequences. And being around you makes it impossible for me not to think about how my marriage is failing, how I'm not as half as a successful surgeon my mother was at my age and how I'm a horrible person for blaming my kids for that."

She handed the tubes to Jo, who kept staring at her with an eyebrow raised. "You do realize that this is not a very encouraging thing to listen in my position, don't you?"

Meredith shrugged. "Sorry. I just wanted you to know. I don't hate you." She didn't know why this was so important now, but she felt like she should repeat that for the third time.

Jo's face softened and she sighed, sitting again by Meredith's side. "Do you regret your choices?"

That question caught Meredith by surprise. All about it was surprising. First, the fact that Jo was asking her something that personal; second, the fact that she didn't mind; and last, her own answer. "Sometimes, yes. But I'd probably choose the same if I had the chance. Probably." They sat in silence for a few seconds, the older woman giving the other a time both knew she needed. It wasn't difficult to guess what was going on inside of her mind, it was her wedding's eve and she just found out being pregnant. "Are you having second thoughts?"

Wilson shook her head. "Not exactly. It's just... Too much happening at the same time. I was still dealing with choosing an specialty and becoming Alex's wife, I'm not sure I'm ready to be a mother."

Again, Meredith felt it easy to relate to her fears. It was funny. Wilson was already on her third year, they had worked together dozens of times, they had a connection through Alex for more than one year already, they had even shared his bed a few times and still they just seemed two strangers until now.

Maybe, it was that place. Maybe, being in the tunnels took her back to her residence years and she ignored that her scrubs were navy now. They were just two messed up girls. It also could be the maternity connection. But somehow, both women let their guard down and that was a bond that at least one of them was glad they had.

"It's not easy. Motherhood is the most difficult job I've ever had. You'll be lost for a while, but eventually you're gonna figure it out and you'll see it's worth the pain," she said, sincerely. It was the best piece of advice she could give at that moment. She hoped it worked.

Jo closed her eyes and took a long deep breath before she got up. "Thank you," she said with a smile and walked away. After taking a few steps, she turned back to Meredith. "I really hope you and Shepherd can work things out. And not only because I want you out of my bed."

* * *

**A/N: **I know that some of you probably hated this chapter, specially because I didn't warn you that there's zero Jolex interaction and it's on someone else's POV. I'm sorry for that, but I really felt like writing about how Meredith sees Jo. Since Shonda tweeted about them, I'm intrigued to know how they're gonna work this silent hostility between them for the next episodes. And I want old Meredith back. You know, the one that helped Alex to study even though she didn't like him on season 2, the one that held an annoying season 6 April's hand when her best friend was trying to save her husband's life, the one that encouraged Alex to not give up on Jo... I hope they bring her back soon, but until they do it, I'm gonna forget that she's being a pain in the ass and write what I wanted to happen lol. Please, don't hate me. And, please, review :)


	6. I'll be there (2015)

_**And oh, I'll be there to comfort you**_  
_**Build my world of dreams around you**_  
_**I'm so glad that I found you**_  
**(I'll be there - Jackson Five)**

**January, 2015.**

11:03 pm

11:04 pm

11:05 pm

Sitting on an on-call room bed, Jo tapped her hands in her thighs, only stopping to look at the clock one more time. It had been nine minutes since she tricked the nurse to page 911 to Alex, as soon as she heard that his last surgery was over. It had been five hours since her shift ended, she waved goodbye to her colleagues and searched for an empty place to take her blood, only to be interrupted by Meredith Grey and have what was probably the first friendly conversation since they met. It had been eighteen hours since she woke up at Stephanie's place after her bachelorette party the night before, feeling so sick that she decided to take her friend's advice seriously and take a pregnancy test. She knew that the roller-coaster that had been messing with her stomach for more than a week couldn't be just a hangover, but she had blamed the anxiety about a wedding ceremony neither her or Alex wanted to have.

Thinking about that made Jo feel sick again; she couldn't even count how many bottles of beer she had drunk the last month. _What a great way to treat your baby, Josephine._

11:08 pm

A baby. She put her hand under her shirt and touched her own skin. There was a human being growing inside of her. A life that had her blood, her genes. That simple truth was enough to fill her mind with a thousand conflicted thoughts. The last time she had a blood connection with someone, _she_ was the tiny human. From the amazement of that realization, came the anger and her breath became heavy. It had been only a few hours since she found out and she already felt so connected, so protective that not in a million years she could break that. Over the years, she had learned not to be bitter, not to judge her mother, but now she couldn't understand how a person could just abandon someone that way.

11:10 pm

_Alex, please_. She needed him. He was the only person in the whole universe that could make her feel better. The only person she allowed to see her that vulnerable. And the only person who would be in this with her.

Jo had no idea how he would react - he could be happy, or mad, or scared like she was, he could yell or lock himself on his silent cage - but one thing she was as positive as the HCG on that piece of paper by her side: Alex would never not be there for whoever needed him.

And now, she felt guilty. She should've talked to him earlier. He should be the one helping her to take her blood, not Grey - although that was an important moment she would dissect later. He should be the first one to know.

11:15 pm

A knock on the door made her heart jump. "Jo! Are you in there?" Alex's voice entered the room and in half a second she was ready to get rid of the closed piece of wood separating them.

As he passed by her, she locked it again and felt his lips touching her cheek. That bare contact calmed her racing heart just enough to prevent her from crying.

"Hey, what's up? I thought you'd gone home hours ago." Alex said, while taking her hand and making her face him, both standing in the middle of the room.

"I need to tell you something," Jo started, cautiously observing as his expression changes from casual to intrigued. She waited until she was sure he understood the seriousness of the situation, and inhaled what seemed to be the whole amount of air available in the world. "I'm pregnant."

Alex went from intrigued to surprised in a second, but it was more than the time Jo needed to analyze every inch of his face and she felt her heart warming when, in the following moment, she saw a hint of a smile on the corner of his mouth.

"Wow..." His usual lack of eloquence was evident, but the softness on his voice and the extra spark on his eyes told her everything. She had no reason to be scared, because he was there. He was ready to be her husband, to be the father of their child. And he was happy.

She bit her lower lip and blinked twice to spare the tears. "Yeah..." She said, reciprocating his stare, before she felt a slight change of pressure on the hand he was holding and threw herself on his arms. He kissed the top of her head and held her tighter than he'd ever done before. Jo closed her eyes and breathed the familiar scent of the man that was, now, literally part of her.


End file.
